Happy day: Vic Country's successful women's and men's rep teams which featured players from the Goulburn Valley.
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The warm sunny days may be on the way out but the bowls action hasn’t slowed down for many of the Goulburn Valley region’s gun talents.
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Last weekend a contingent from the GV starred for Vic Country in the annual clash against its metro opponents.
There was district flavour in the men’s and women’s outfits as the two sides triumphed over their rivals at Bendigo Bowls Club on Sunday.
In the men’s contingent, Shepparton Golf champion Brad Orr was influential for Country in the tense and narrow 3-85 to 0-77 win over Metro.
Orr, who is set to take on the coaching reins again for Golf next Goulburn Valley Playing Area season, showcased his skilful talents as skip.
Orr’s rink went on to down its opponent 14-9.
Orr’s premiership teammate at Golf and Tallygaroopna talent David Daws skipped a rink, but he was unable to get on the winning end of things and suffered a 19-9 defeat.
Daws’ teammate at Tallygaroopna Adrian Pantling played second in the rink.
Former East Shepparton coach Josh Thornton was the lead in Orr’s rink, while Rochester export Cameron Keenan played second in Andrew Brown’s victorious rink.
For the women’s outfit, it prevailed by 10 shots over its opponent to make it a Vic Country double.
Kyabram product Olivia Cartwright enjoyed a strong day out as third in Cassandra Millerick’s rink as it chalked up a crucial 20-10 triumph.
Millerick is Cartwright’s teammate at Moama.
Shepparton Golf talent Carla Miles played the lead for Anne Draffen’s rink as it suffered a narrow five-shot loss.
Miles’ mother Anne skipped a rink, but followed the same fate as her daughter and settled for an 18-6 defeat.
The duo had the last laugh as Country triumphed 3-60 to 0-50.
Meanwhile, the region’s next bowls stars are in the thick of the action at the Victorian under-18 state week.
A host of Goulburn Murray Devils are out in force in Bendigo for the annual event.
Mooroopna’s Olivia Andrews and Tatura-Hill Top’s Maddison Marin came agonisingly close to pulling off a memorable victory in the under-18 girls’ pairs.
The talented duo suffered a 20-10 defeat in the final at the hands of Maddison Jacobs and Chloe Scherger to finish runner-up in the category.
In the boys’ triples event, Cartwright’s brothers Josh and Jacob suffered defeats in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Josh’s team, Bayden Parkinson (Numurkah Golf) and Henry Boswood (Kyabram) went down by one-shot, while Jacob, James Wall (Avenel) and Charlie Boswood (Kyabram) sufferd an eight-shot loss.
Lastly, the Goulburn Valley region won bragging rights over its Murray opponents at the weekend when it retained the Rowland-Sutcliffe Trophy Challenge.
Trophy challenge: Maurie Rowlands, John Stokes, Jean Sprague, Geoff Sutcliffe and Alan Rogers.
It was a one-sided affair with Goulburn Valley running out 447 shots (50 points) to 344 shots (28 points) winners at East Shepparton Bowls Club.
The representative bowls matches continue next month with the Goulburn Murray Bowls Region taking on Ovens and Murray.
The GMBR will host the O&M at East Shepparton on May 13.
The clash will be a prelude and warm-up to the upcoming Bowls Victoria region championships at Echuca-Moama from May 26 to 28.
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